A spokeswoman for ThyssenKrupp said the company was not in talks on such a sale.

"There are absolutely no projects on submarines for Saudi Arabia and therefore no talks," she told Reuters. "The article lacks any foundation."

Bild am Sonntag said that Saudi Arabia plans to spend 12 billion euros to acquire as many as 25 submarines over the longer term, to be assembled by ThyssenKrupp's Marine Systems division at shipyards in northern Germany.

Arms exports are a sensitive issue in Germany because of its Nazi past and the role arms makers such as Krupp played in stoking 19th and 20th century wars with exports to both sides.

Successive governments of former West Germany and the subsequently reunified Germany placed tight restrictions on arms exports. - Reuters